The Book of PF
The Book of PF by Peter N. M. Hansteenby Peter N. M. Hansteen
Ranked 2 of 3 networking books by recommenders
Recommended as a practical introduction to PF, the packet filter, that helps readers learn how firewalls operate and which rules to write.
Recommended as a practical introduction to PF, the packet filter, that helps readers learn how firewalls operate and which rules to write.
5 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 5
- criticize it
- 0
- approval share
- 100%
Recommended in 3 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 5 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- Nobody criticizes itNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 3 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, not met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Explains how firewalls operate
“this should give you enough insight on how a firewall operates to get a sense of what rules to write”
Comment from 21 May 2026 in “Blog ran on Ubuntu 16.04 for 10 years. I migrated it to FreeBSD” Good starting point for beginners
“it helps to start in the shallow end before you tread into deeper waters”
Comment from 1 Feb 2026 in “The Book of PF, 4th edition” Valuable and helped professionally
“It's a great book, I used to have some edition of it and it helped me a lot professionally”
Comment from 1 Feb 2026 in “The Book of PF, 4th edition” “I think these books are very valuable.”
Comment from 1 Feb 2026 in “The Book of PF, 4th edition”
Other networking books people recommend
The two most recommended other networking books, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| TCP/IP Illustratedby W. Richard Stevens | 7 | 1 | 88% | 6 | — | — |
| The Book of PFby Peter N. M. HansteenThis page | 5 | 0 | 100% | 3 | — | — |
| High-Performance Browser Networkingby Ilya Grigorik | 4 | 2 | 67% | 4 | — | — |
What people said
4 of the 5 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“this should give you enough insight on how a firewall operates to get a sense of what rules to write”
“I think these books are very valuable.”
“it helps to start in the shallow end before you tread into deeper waters”
“It's a great book, I used to have some edition of it and it helped me a lot professionally”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.